PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — So, exorcism might seem like fiction. But did you know that the Vatican has actually encouraged every Catholic diocese to have a trained exorcist on staff?

A local exorcism expert is traveling around the world to train those priests.

Once he was a skeptic, but he tells KDKA’s Andy Sheehan, after assisting in nearly 100 exorcisms, his experiences have made him a believer.

For the past 10 years Adam Blai has been on the front line.

“Basically, it’s a war between heaven and hell,” says Blai. “That’s been going on since Creation started, and it’s a war over us for the most part.”

Fighting over the bodies and souls of the possessed.

“Their mouth isn’t moving and the sound coming out of them is beyond what a human can produce,” Blai says.

A force that’s taken over.

“I’ve also seen bones dislocate spontaneously, and pop out when something animated the body and put the body into a different shape,” he says.

Blai says he’s needed to summon angels and saints to battle what he calls “the kingdom of darkness.”

Sheehan: “So, it’s a war.”

Blai: “Oh yeah, we’ve seen the demon and possessed call out to its brothers and doors blow off and there’s nothing there, but something has entered the room. That happens all the time.”

Exorcism traces its roots to the New Testament Gospels where Jesus frees the possessed, but even Blai himself was initially skeptical.

“Your mind rebels against really believing that this is really real, even after you’ve seen some things,” he says. “But eventually, the evidence piles up, and the pile becomes so large that you really have to accept it.”

Blai studied psychology at Penn State, and studied the most violent criminals, but even in serial killers and rapists, he found at least some humanity – not so with the possessed.

Ex-county commissioner shares his paranormal story:

“When you interact with somebody possessed by a demon, their heart is so completely and totally black and devoid of any hesitation or compassion that you know in your heart that they would tear you apart and be smiling the entire time,” Blai said.

Blai: “Holy water is something that’s used in every case.”

Sheehan: “Now, if you sprayed the possessed with holy water, would it burn? That’s something we see in the movies. There will be some reaction.”

Blai: “Oh yeah, they have a violet reactions. It looks as though they’ve been scourged with a whip.”

“It really changes you, and to see a full-blown case like they would make movies about — though Hollywood always exaggerates things a little bit – it really kind of straightens out your spiritually life,” Blai said. “And you have to think very hard about what you’re going to do with that knowledge.”

KDKA-TV Investigator Andy Sheehan began his broadcast journalism career in September 1992, when he joined KDKA-TV after reporting for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette for nine years. Prior to that he worked for the Daily Register in Red Bank, New...